


Before We Begin

by sanashi27



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Gen, Horror, Might be OOC, based on (allegedly) true stories, hint of peony x nephry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:41:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25893808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanashi27/pseuds/sanashi27
Summary: As Luke walked down their school's emptying hallways that late afternoon, he thinks about the stories his friends have relayed to him about their apparently haunted school.
Relationships: Asch the Bloody/Natalia Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, Fon Master Ion/Anise Tatlin, Luke fon Fabre/Tear Grants
Kudos: 2





	Before We Begin

**Author's Note:**

> I made this way back in 2015 for a fic contest and then forgot it existed lol. I found this on my flash drive and thought I'd fix it a little and add a few missing lines (I had to take out some stuff since there was a word limit) but most of this is the same as it was when I wrote it back in the day so it's probably bad? I dunno.
> 
> I do hope you guys still enjoy this though!

“I give up! I’m tired…” Luke whined as he stared at his unfinished worksheet.

It was already afternoon and he and a few other students taking the summer classes are still stressing over the papers they were given. Luke in particular was not amused as his friends are all outdoors enjoying their summer vacation while he was still stuck at school.

As the other students start passing their papers in front, Luke tried to answer his paper in a hurry. He didn’t want to have to stay in school for any longer.

“Finally!” he says as he placed the paper on the teacher’s desk. He stretches his arms and went back to his desk to grab his bag and then left the room.

It was already late in the afternoon when he finished and some of the lights in the hallways were being turned on. As he walked through the hallways filled with empty classrooms, he started thinking about the conversation he had with his friends a week ago - the start of summer vacation when they all decided to hang out.

* * *

The group was taking a break at the park. They all decided to buy some ice cream: Natalia and Tear had vanilla, Guy had chocolate, Anise and Ion had strawberry, Jade had peppermint and just to piss them off, Jade decided to get Luke and Asch twin popsicles to share with each other.

“Your half is bigger than mine!” Luke exclaimed as they broke the popsicle in half.

“Quit whining, trash!” Asch said as he pushed his brother away “The difference isn’t even that big anyways.”

“Yes it is and don’t call me ‘trash’!” Luke angrily replied.

“Stop it you two!” Natalia looked at the two boys with disdain “You’re both acting like children!”

“It was his fault…” Luke muttered as he glared in Asch direction.

“Shut it!” Asch told him as he took a bite of his popsicle.

The rest of them just watched in mixed annoyance and exasperation. Arguments between the two happen so often that they should have gotten used to it by now. In the end, the two reluctantly made up and ate ice cream in peace.

With the girls (and Ion) sitting on a nearby bench and Guy leaning on a tree near the back of said bench, Jade standing near its side, Asch leaning on the bench and Luke sitting on the pavement, they started to chat.

“I wanna go to the beach!!” Anise exclaimed “It’d be so much fun! We’re gonna wear swimsuits of course!” she says, grinning at Tear.

“W-what?” Tear nervously asked. She knew she’s gonna get teased by the younger girl.

“You should wear that swimsuit Peony-sensei gave you back when we all went to the pool together last year! I want to see what it looks like. I’m sure Luke wanted to see it, too!” she said as she turned to Luke who then choked on his popsicle out of shock.

“W-w-what the heck are you talking about, Anise?!” Luke said as he blushed “I never said that!”

“Anise!” Tear said, also blushing

Anise couldn’t help but laugh at their reaction and wiped the tears off her eyes “But really, most of us wore ours! You should have worn it, too…”

“I don’t want to!” Tear complained “It’s not really… something I’d be comfortable in wearing.”

“I agree.” Natalia sighs “If I knew we could rent swimsuits I would have done the same thing Tear did instead of wearing that embarrassing outfit! I’m going to wear a different swimsuit if we ever do go to the beach.”

“That’s a shame isn’t it, Asch?” Jade said with a grin on his face.

Asch blushed and angrily protested “Don’t drag me into this, old man!”

“Too bad though. We’re gonna have to wait a while since Luke has to finish his summer classes first.” Guy said as everyone quieted down

“Aww!! We’re gonna waste nearly a month of our vacation just cause you couldn’t pass your subjects!” Anise told Luke who started to feel bad

“I’m sorry. You guys could go on without me though…” Luke said, smiling apologetically at his friends.

“Hey, hey I was just kidding! But really… a month!” Anise said as she looked up at the sky.

“We could still go on the weekends though.” Guy said

Asch sighs and looks at his younger brother “How could you be this stupid? Really, it’s an insult to me as well. People could mistake me for you. Hmph, trash.”

“You’re one to talk! Your grades aren’t that high either!” Luke pointed out.

“But I passed.” Asch grins and Luke couldn’t say anything against it.

“Alright, alright children… that’s enough!” Jade said “I’d be in school as well anyways since I’d be working.”

“Oh, yeah. Jade-sensei would be there, too.” Luke said

“But not everyday.” Jade added.

“That reminds me!” Anise exclaimed “Why don’t we do that? You know that thing people usually do on summers?”

“What thing, Anise?” Ion asked as everyone just stared at Anise.

“Test of courage! I heard your school is haunted so why don’t we do it there? Sensei works there anyways.” Anise excitedly explains “We can go by pairs. Like, I’ll go with Ion and Luke is with Tear and Asch is with Natalia!”

“So that leaves me with Guy, then?” Jade asked

“Guy with his phobia would freak out before the scary stuff even happens.” Anise points out.

“Well, that’s true. It would be nice if I was with a girl though.” Guy says as he scratches his head.

“I’ve never gone on a test of courage before.” Ion mused “It seems like it would be fun.”

“Uh, I think I’ll pass. I don’t think it’s a good idea and I doubt the other teacher’s would approve.” Tear nervously said

“Oh, come on! Don’t be scared… I mean Luke would be there with you, anyways.” Anise said as she giggled.

Tear blushed “Anise! T-that’s not… besides, I’m not scared. Ghost aren’t real.”

“Right…”

“Our school is haunted? Really? Never heard of that before.” Luke said.

“Really? I’ve heard of a few stories.” Natalia says as she tried to remember “Yes, the girl’s bathroom on the 1st floor of the 2nd building.”  
Tear shuddered as the others started telling ghost stories.

“I remember two classmates of mine going to the bathroom together but after a few minutes, they were running back to the room, crying. They told us that the faucet turned on by itself and a girl wearing the school’s old uniform from probably 30 years ago, passed by the window. They ran off as soon as they could.”

“Really? Then we’d definitely go there!” Anise exclaimed “Where else?”

* * *

Luke slowly walked down the stairs as he looked around the nearly empty school and remembered both Asch and Guy’s stories.

_“Not that I believe it to be true but some students and even teachers claim that there’s a headless priest going down the stairs at night.” Asch told them._

_“Well, I heard that apparently, the school used to be a cemetery 60 years ago before the school was built in it’s place.” Jade said._

_“A cemetery, huh? I should’ve asked the teacher about it earlier.” Luke sighed. He then passed by the library and remembered Guy’s story._

_Deep in thought, Guy suddenly spoke “Oh, now that I think about it former classmates of mine told me something, too.”_

_“Back in 10th grade, 2 male classmates of mine were doing their homework at the library. They brought an mp3 player and shared the earphones. As they listened, they heard someone screaming and thought that it must be someone outside being really loud. To drown out the sound, they decided to raise the mp3’s volume… then they noticed the scream becoming louder and found out the scream was coming from the earphones. They took them off and screamed. One of them told me the teacher scolded them but they never told her what happened because she might not believe them anyways.”_

_“I heard that sometimes, it would feel like you were being watched and others said they saw someone else in the library when there was no one else there.” Natalia added._

Luke thought of taking a peek in the library but decided against it. They’d go there for their test of courage soon, anyway. He then saw the path to the bathrooms and remembered something else Asch said.

_“Our chemistry teacher told us something last year, too.” Asch recalled “She saw 2 female students go to the bathroom when she was still studying there. She then heard them laugh while inside. She said it was really creepy. She waited for them to come out after the laughing stopped but not one came out. She tried looking inside and peeked through the door but there was no one else inside.”_

\---

The sky was orange and the sun would be setting soon. The other students left in school are starting to come out of their rooms. Luke jumped a bit when he felt someone tap his shoulder.

“Hey! You’re still here, huh?”

“P-peony-sensei…” Luke said as he stared at his teacher who is smiling happily. He then lets out a sigh of relief.

“What’s with you? It’s like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” Peony-sensei wondered as he stared at his student who he noticed looked a bit pale at the moment.

“Oh, it’s nothing really.” Luke said as he scratched his cheek “Wait, uh… sensei, I heard that there are weird things happening in the school. Like it’s haunted or something. Have you heard of it?”

Peony-sensei’s eyes widened at the sudden question but still thought about it “Well, I guess. I have heard some teachers talking about it sometimes.”

“Really?” Luke asked “Like what?”

“Well, one of the teachers said that back then, there was a student who forgot his pencil while he was taking an exam. The kid asked to borrow from anyone and someone passed him a pencil from behind. He turned around to thank the person but then realized that behind him was a wall and that nobody else was there.”

“I see… where’s that room?” Luke asked.

“Hmm…” Peony-sensei thought “The 2nd building, I think.”

“So I guess most stories happen in the 2nd building, huh?”

“Makes sense since it’s the older building of the school. So, what’s up with these questions?” Peony-sensei asked Luke.

“Well, we were planning on doing a test of courage here in school because they said this place might be haunted so I was just wondering--”

Luke was suddenly cut off by his teacher who looks really excited “Really? That sounds like fun! I’ll join you kids. Jade’s gonna be there, too isn’t he?”

“I guess… I mean you’re a teacher, too so I guess that’d be better for us. But we’re going in pairs and everyone’s already got a partner.”

“Hmm… I wonder? If Nephry isn’t busy I’d invite her!” Peony-sensei said with enthusiasm but noticed his student looking paler than he did earlier “What’s wrong?”

“Uh… that--” Luke points out behind his teacher who then turned around. Behind him is Jade with has a scary grin on his face and looking at him, you couldn’t tell if he was actually happy or angry.

Peony couldn’t react fast enough when Jade suddenly grabbed him by the collar and pulled him away “Sensei…” Jade said “You’re paperwork isn’t done yet. Don’t tell me you plan on going home without finishing them?”

“Aww… but I can just do them tomorrow!”

“No.”

Luke watched as his teachers went back to the faculty room and went home.

\---

“Alright! It’s finally time~” Anise announced excitedly.

It was a weekend night and there’s a full moon in the sky. Luke and his friends stand before the school building besides their partners waiting for the game to begin.

“Well, I already told you children the rules. Were going in the order of the papers we drew earlier. Ready?” Jade asked “Then Luke and Tear would go 1st.”

Luke took a deep breath and looked at his partner. Both teens gave each other a nod and went through the front door, signalling the beginning of the game.

**Author's Note:**

> As mentioned above in the tags, the "horror" stories in here are based on true stories... at least that's what our teachers and classmates said to us back then. The stories here are either relayed to me and my classmates by our teachers or fellow classmates or told to my siblings by their teachers and classmates. The one with the priest came from my sibling's elementary school located in a church but the rest came from a local high school we all attended.
> 
> Thank you for reading this far! Hope you guys enjoyed it at least!


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